Book Review: The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl (Melissa Keil)

February 3, 2016Article

* I have been given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *

Publisher: Little Tiger Group

Release Date: February 11th 2016

Summary (from Goodreads):

Alba loves her life just as it is. She loves living behind the bakery, and waking up in a cloud of sugar and cinnamon. She loves drawing comics and watching bad TV with her friends.

The only problem is she’s overlooked a few teeny details:

Like, the guy she thought long gone has unexpectedly reappeared.
And the boy who has been her best friend since forever has suddenly gone off the rails.
And even her latest comic-book creation is misbehaving.

Also, the world might be ending – which is proving to be awkward.

As Doomsday enthusiasts flock to idyllic Eden Valley, Alba’s life is thrown into chaos. Whatever happens next, it’s the end of the world as she knows it. But when it comes to figuring out her heart, Armageddon might turn out to be the least of her problems.

Review:

This book has just about the best relationship/romance going – I freaking adored it.

So the end of the world stuff isn’t really a big feature in the book – sure it’s a bit of a catalyst to some of the character’s actions (“if this is our last few days then we should…” etc) but at its heart this is a story about growing up and knowing where you’re going. It reminded me a little of The Rest of Us Just Live Hereby Patrick Ness, in the way that all the weird stuff that’s happening is really background info, and the main focus is the characters.

And what characters we have here! I seriously loved them all, they were so vivid and relatable, and it made the book really easy to read. Alba especially is one the finest protagonists I’ve read in a while: I loved that she wasn’t the prettiest or the skinniest person around but she was comfortable with who she was, and that was great. All her talk of super heroes and graphic novels just sang to me too – I read a few myself, but my partner is really into them, and it just reminded me of him sometimes and made me smile.

The relationship between Alba and Grady was the sweetest thing. In just a few pages you really had a sense of the closeness of their friendship, and that only developed throughout the book. I felt like I’d known them forever. And I have to say, though I’m not usually a big fan of romance stories (I usually prefer friendship ones) I have never rooted for a couple to get together like I did for them – and you’ll just have to read it to find out if they do 😉

This is a perfect book for readers in that awkward time when they’re having to make decisions that can affect the rest of their lives – I want to get my sister to read it as she’s freaking out about A level choices and how they’re going to affect uni choices and such. The overall message is a good one too – you do what is best for you, whether that’s staying in your small town or getting as far away as possible, and you don’t halt your dreams for some guy (I can’t stress that enough!)